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Orlando Bird reviews The World in Thirty-Eight Chapters by Henry Hitchings

Today Samuel Johnson is, as he might have put it, a writer more frequently invoked than read. Most people have a quote up their sleeve, even if they don’t realise it’s one of his. He seems to have come up with something for everyone – from book reviewers (“No man but a blockhead ever wrote, except for money”) to ravers (“Whoever thinks of going to bed before twelve o’clock is a scoundrel”) and, of course, the entire London souvenir industry (“When a man is tired of London”, etc).

It’s not a terrible fate for an 18th-century writer. When was the last time you saw one of Joseph Addison’s zingers on a key ring? But, as Henry...